Olympics Australian Sailing Daily Wrap Tues 19 Aug

by Australian Sailing Team Media on 19 Aug 2008 The Australian Sailing team remains in the running for two medals after racing today. Windsurfer Jessica Crisp goes into tomorrow's RS:X Women's medal race in fourth position and the Tornado team remains equal first overall.

There was limited racing in Qingdao today, with only the Laser Radial and Laser medal races and the last race of the RS:X preliminary series held. The Tornado and Star classes did not manage to get any races completed.

Australia's Sarah Blanck finished fourth in today's Laser Radial medal race. The USA's Anna Tunnicliffe won Gold, Lithuania claimed Silver and China won Bronze.

Jessica Crisp will go into tomorrow's RS:X medal race on 46 points, which is 13 points behind the Chinese leader Jian Yin (33 points), eight points behind Italy (38 points) and just five points behind Great Britain (41 points). While Gold is a stretch given Yin has shown such dominance in this regatta, but Silver or Bronze are very real opportunities for Crisp, particularly because of the double points up for grabs in the medal race.

Crisp is competing at her third Olympic Games but this is the fourth Olympics she has taken part in - in 1984 she was part of Windsurfing as an Olympic demonstration sport at Los Angeles. The former professional windsurfing double world champion has more than 20 years' international competition experience and is one of the fittest girls on the water, so tomorrow's medal race will be worth watching.

Eight time World Champion and Sydney 2000 Silver Medallist Darren Bundock and his crew mate Glenn Ashby remain equal first on points in the Tornado competition. The pair is ranked Number One in the world and have won 11 world titles between them.

The Australian Star crew of Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey remain 15th Overall.

Both the Tornado and Star classes' medal races are scheduled for Thursday 21 August, so they will be hoping to get some racing done tomorrow.

Racing Wednesday 20th August
- Jessica Crisp in the Women's RS:X medal race scheduled for 1pm Qingdao time (3pm Sydney time) pending weather conditions

- Tornado and Star classes continue preliminary racing series

Australian Team Insights:
Personal motto:'The harder I train, the luckier I get.' - Darren Bundock, Tornado

www.australiansailingteam.com.au